Police ‘covered up child sex abuse by actors and priests’
John Simpson March 29 2015

Actors, priests, judges and entertainers have been implicated in the latest allegations that Scotland Yard covered up establishment child sex abuse, the police watchdog has confirmed.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has begun three more investigations into claims of corruption in the Metropolitan Police’s investigations into alleged paedophile rings involving prominent figures spanning 35 years.

The new investigations mean that there are now 17 inquiries into allegations that senior officers “hindered or halted” investigations and surveillance operations, suppressed evidence and ordered detectives to limit their inquiries when police officers, politicians or famous people were implicated.http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4395594.ece
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HEAVILY lawyered US network HBO aired its highly anticipated Scientology documentary overnight, and with it some startling allegations about the organisation and its two most famous members.

Directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, the film, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, is based on a book-length expose by Lawrence Wright and shares the stories of those who escaped the religion, including high-ranking officials.

Detailing claims of psychological and physical abuse, former members share horrific and fascinating accounts of their time in the church — particularly about how its leader, David Miscavige, relies on stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta to recruit and raise money, and how he keeps them on board.

The Church of Scientology is worth billions but, as it operates as a non-profit religious organisation, is exempt from taxation.

In the film, Wright says there are two ways the fast-growing organisation could be stopped; the first is a financial crackdown by the IRS, and the second is a high-profile backlash, which is even less likely….

According to the MailOnline’s review, the film claims Scientologists hold a “blackmail file” on Cruise and fellow Scientologist John Travolta, to stop them leaving the faith….

The claims have been disputed by the church, with Gibney outlining in the film their insistence that Scientology has no control over Cruise….

A man’s ice addiction led him to violently rape and beat a Dutch tourist he had taken hostage during a six-week ordeal at a Melbourne hotel, a court hears.
Alfio Granata has pleaded guilty to 14 charges over the incident at a Preston Hotel.

A man’s ice addiction led him to violently rape and beat a Dutch tourist he had taken hostage during a six-week ordeal at a Melbourne hotel, a court has been told.

Enoch Powell is named by bishop in sex abuse probe: Scotland Yard to investigate satanic abuse claim – and demands to see filed held on serving MPs

Bishop of Durham Paul Butler names late Tory politician to Scotland Yard
Former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, heard allegation in 1980s
Claim being examined by Operation Fenbridge – one of several such probes
Simon Heffer, Powell’s official biographer, branded allegations ‘nonsense’

By Glen Owen and Brendan Carlin for The Mail on Sunday
29 March 2015
The probe into an alleged paedophile network at the heart of the British Establishment took an explosive turn last night with the revelation that Enoch Powell’s name has been passed to police.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the late Tory MP, one of the most prominent and divisive politicians of the 20th Century, has been named to Scotland Yard by the Bishop of Durham. The claims relate to ‘ritual satanic abuse’.

And in a further development to the sex-ring investigations, police are to be given access to secret files held on MPs in the House of Commons archives as they hunt for evidence on suspected abusers, including former Liberal MP Cyril Smith….

Mr Walker is believed to have warned the Right Rev Butler that at the time he was told of the claims against Powell, unsubstantiated allegations of satanic rituals – often involving the abuse of children – were widespread….

Bitcoin’s Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Malware And Child Abuse, Warns Interpol
Thomas Fox-Brewster Forbes Staff 3/27/2015
The blockchain, the public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, has all kinds of good uses outside of providing stability for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, from decentralised data storage to super-flexible email. But it can also be put to malicious use. According to Interpol’s Christian Karam, speaking from the Black Hat Asia conference, it could be abused to store malware control mechanisms or provide access to illicit content such as child abuse images that would be extremely difficult to take down….http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/03/27/bitcoin-blockchain-pollution-a-criminal-opportunity/

Sierra Leone: Wife beating is still a common practice
28 March 2015
By Mariama Kandeh, Guest Writer, London, UK….

According to the Sierra Leone family support Unit, in 2012, the Western Area reported a total of 1,923 domestic violence cases while in 2013 the number rose to 2,073, the highest in the entire country and over 95% committed by husbands against their wives.

“the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations.”

The notion that victims of physical abuse as kids are more likely to abuse their own children, often described as the “cycle of violence,” is widely held but sparsely documented. Now, the first large, longitudinal study to track how victims of child abuse treat their own children has found little evidence of a cycle of violence, but suggests that sexual abuse and neglect may indeed be passed down the generations. The study, published this week in Science, also makes a controversial claim: that heightened surveillance of families with a history of abuse may have biased some studies taken as evidence for the cycle of violence.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6229/1408.summary

THURSDAY, March 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Conventional wisdom says that abused children often grow up to be abusive parents, but a 30-year study of American families suggests it’s more complicated than that.

In one striking finding, researchers uncovered little evidence that physical abuse is passed from one generation to the next.

“That was extremely surprising,” said lead researcher Cathy Spatz Widom, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City. “The theory has been that children of parents who were abused are at increased risk of physical abuse.”

That theory has been supported by past research. But, Widom explained, those studies have been hampered by limitations, such as working “backward” — starting with parents accused of abuse, and asking them if they’d been mistreated as kids.

“The problem there is, you miss the parents who were abused but did not go on to have these issues,” Widom explained.

Her study, published in the March 27 issue of Science, followed two generations of families, including over 1,100 parents and their kids. More than half of the parents had been abused or neglected as children, back in the 1960s and 1970s; the rest had no history of abuse, but were from similar backgrounds.

To see whether the children of abused parents were at risk, Widom’s team used three sources: Records from child protective services (CPS); interviews with parents; and interviews with their children once they were young adults.

Overall, the researchers found, children of abused parents were at no greater risk of physical abuse. And that was true whether the information came from parents’ or children’s reports, or CPS records.

Based on CPS reports, for example, almost 7 percent of kids born to abused parents suffered physical abuse, versus just over 5 percent of the comparison group — a difference that was not statistically significant.

(Reuters) – A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children in Poland and the Dominican Republic was sentenced to seven years in jail by a Polish court on Wednesday….

The priest, who under Polish law can only be identified as Wojciech G., was suspended by his religious order in the rural Dominican parish of Juncalito last year after local residents accused him of molesting altar boys, according to the church.

He was arrested after returning to his native Poland and was tried on 10 charges relating to child sex abuse and possessing pornographic images of children. The charges carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.

Earlier in March, the priest offered to serve a seven-year jail term, under a part of Polish law that lets defendants file such motions without admitting guilt. Polish media have quoted the priest as saying he is not guilty….

The Vatican last year arrested a defrocked Polish archbishop, Jozef Wesolowski, former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic, after he was accused of having sex with children during his posting.

Dartmouth College is investigating its Alpha Delta fraternity, inspiration for the movie “Animal House,” for branding students’ flesh as part of an initiation ritual.

The accusations, if proven by the school, could result in probation, suspension or permanent loss of recognition for the fraternity. The alleged incident occurred in the fall, Dartmouth said in a statement. The school didn’t give further details.

Colleges across the U.S. have punished fraternities in recent weeks amid allegations of racism, hazing and offensive behavior toward women. Philip Hanlon, Dartmouth’s president since 2013 and a former Alpha Delta member, has defended fraternity life while condemning “extreme behavior” that he said hurts the Hanover, New Hampshire, college and its reputation.

“(Father) Sylvestre, like most predators, had been cunning. His public demonstrativeness cast doubt on anything he might be accused of doing behind closed doors, especially because he was such a powerful and beloved man.”

Father Charlie had curious hands

In an exclusive story for the Star, bestselling novelist Lori Lansens recalls her childhood in Chatham, Ont., and her early encounters with Father Charles Sylvestre, later convicted of abusing dozens of girls.

Author Lori Lansens, pictured at her home in California. “God and Father Charlie were inextricably bound for me then,” she writes, reflecting on her childhood in Chatham, Ont. “That confusing incident in the rectory stole them both, and made me question everything that I’d ever believed.”
By: Lori Lansens Special to the Star, Published on Fri Mar 20 2015….

To hundreds of children during his lengthy residence at St. Ursula’s Parish, the priest was Father Charlie. A charismatic leader with sympathetic eyes, he roamed the hallways of our school and often walked the yard at recess, ready with his warm embrace. Sometimes he came into our classrooms and the teachers would sneak off for a cigarette break — so many of them smoked back then. He’d sit in the teacher’s big chair, gathering us close as we competed for the spot on his lap. I prayed that Father Charlie would favour me, as he clearly seemed to favour certain little girls….

When I was around 10 years old, I began to notice that Father Charlie had curious hands. They wouldn’t rest on a young girl’s shoulder, but encircle her waist or creep up her back, or touch the hair around her collarbone or at the back of her neck. He gave a lot of shoulder massages too. Had he always done that? Had my perception of his touching changed as I’d matured? I felt guilty and ashamed for wondering. He was a priest after all, and so it followed, in my young mind, that he was innocent and naive.

I was in the hallway with one of my Grade 5 classmates when Father Charlie appeared one day, spreading his arms to embrace us as he’d done since we were small children. He complimented my friend, an early bloomer, on her shamrock-patterned T-shirt as I seethed with envy. Then the priest fixed his gaze on her budding breasts and raised his index finger to touch her nipple, slowly tracing a series of shamrock graphics there as I watched in silent horror…..

(Somewhere around Grade 7, rumours had begun to circulate about our beloved Father Charlie. Maybe there had always been rumours and we just hadn’t heard them. Some of the girls had nicknames for him — Father Feeler and Sylvestre the Molester. Lisa and I didn’t believe the talk, which was usually vague and improbable sounding. His awkward affections had just been misunderstood, we insisted.)….

Then we pulled open the closet door to see a hefty, barely concealed collection of Playboy magazines. Lisa and I clutched each other, screaming silently.

A priest with Playboy? We thought it was hilarious. At least that was our first reaction. Then unease set in. The alcohol and the magazines were nothing we hadn’t glimpsed before at the homes of friends with older brothers, but this was Father Charlie….

I stiffened when he stepped up behind me and cringed when he touched a ringlet at my nape. I didn’t dare catch Lisa’s eye. The priest asked us questions as he played with my curls and I pretended not to notice when he pressed his pelvis into my bony upper back, concerned with how embarrassed Father Charlie would be when he realized that his private parts were touching my spine. When he put his big hands on my shoulders and began a too-rough massage, I seized up. His breath reeked of whiskey and made me feel sick.

He told me to relax but I couldn’t let my shoulders down. His hands were digging below my collarbone into the flesh of my tender chest and it hurt. I tried to unclench and felt awful for disappointing him, even as I wondered if it was possible that he was bumping his genitals against my back intentionally…..

I was in my late 30s and living in Toronto when two brave women whose names I knew, one a classmate’s sister, stepped forward, charging that Charles Sylvestre had abused them when they were students at St. Ursula School. The lawsuit against the London Diocese made headline news. The floodgates opened and more victims came forward from St. Ursula, and other parishes too, in a serial abuse career spanning four decades and five parishes. Charles Sylvestre was charged with fondling, digital penetration and rape in cases involving dozens of little girls. In many instances the abuse began when girls were asked to come and fold bulletins at the rectory after school, or to count the collection, or help with a chore. Sometimes he assaulted the children during confession.

Sylvestre, like most predators, had been cunning. His public demonstrativeness cast doubt on anything he might be accused of doing behind closed doors, especially because he was such a powerful and beloved man. The priest pleaded guilty to 47 counts of sexual assault and died a few months into a three-year prison term. But there were many more victims, other women who have come forward and continue to launch lawsuits against the institutions responsible for keeping pedophiles like Charles Sylvestre in positions of power over children…..http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/03/20/father-charlie-had-curious-hands.html

A Chi Phi fraternity pledge who entered a “ritual casket” during their initiation ceremony went to the hospital after a member “curb stomped” the casket and broke through it, according to records obtained by The Badger Herald. The incident sparked a University of Wisconsin investigation that ultimately led to the fraternity’s March 18 termination.

Committee on Student Organizations unanimously approved Chi Phi’s termination due to hazing violations. CSO’s investigation began after the committee received a report on Jan. 20 with the allegations….

CSO found the fraternity had violated four of 12 items on the Registered Student Organization code of conduct list, three of which prohibit acts of violence, endangerment, sexual assault and substance abuse.

The decision is based off the January report and interviews that the Dean of Students’ office conducted….
The committee found Chi Phi caused “serious physical, psychological and emotional injuries” during its initiation. Among the activities that caused these injuries, CSO cited “food deprivation, stints of hooded isolation, loss of personal liberty, sleeping in a confined attic” and the ritual casket ceremony.

About 20 new members were “crammed” into space in the attic, Knueve said.

Fukuoka bans yakuza finger cutting
By on March 25, 2015
Members of the Dojin-kai are banned from coercing fellow gangsters into cutting off their fingers
FUKUOKA (TR) – Following recent incidents of abuse, the Fukuoka Prefectural Public Safety Commission on Tuesday announced a ban on a ritualistic form of atonement for one of the prefecture’s organized crime groups, reports the Nishi Nippon Shimbun (March 24).

In a meeting with a 41-year-old upper member of the Dojin-kai, whose headquarters is located in Kurume City, the commission said members of the gang would be prohibited from facilitating the removal of a finger of a fellow gangster.

Under the mandate, the act of coercion, whether in a meeting or through telephone or letter, and the provision of a cutting tool are banned acts.

The initiative, based on the Anti-Organized Crime Law enacted in 1991, is a nationwide first. The ban extends for a period of one year.

LDS Church: No tolerance for sex abuse in scouting
By Scott Zamost and Kyra Phillips, CNN
Mon March 23, 2015

Former Boy Scout sues Mormon church for sexual abuse

(CNN) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States, says the church has strong measures in place to prevent the sexual abuse of scouts, as claims have been made it hasn’t done enough.

In the first interview about allegations of abuse in Mormon church-sponsored scouting troops, Church Elder L. Whitney Clayton told CNN that the church is at the forefront for prevention of child abuse….

Over several months, CNN examined allegations of abuse that were detailed in at least five lawsuits filed against the church and the scouts.

But Clayton said the church today is proactive, even constructing its buildings “in such a way as to try to avoid any situation where child abuse could occur.”….

The scoutmaster, Vance Hein, had been forced in resign from scouting in the early 1990s after reports surfaced that he failed to report a fellow scoutmaster who was engaged in homosexual activities. That scoutmaster ended up going to prison for sexual assaults on minors.

Hein’s name was added to the Boy Scouts of America’s ineligible volunteer files, which are widely known as the “perversion files.” The documents, which were made public in 2012, are lists of scout leaders suspected of sexual abuse or homosexual activity.

However, three years after being kicked out of scouting, Hein was allowed to rejoin the scouts after getting letters of recommendation attesting to his character. One of those letters was from Hein’s influential Mormon Bishop Jack Moyer, who wrote that Hein was “highly respected and liked.”….

But in a deposition taken as part of the lawsuit last year, he acknowledged that he would not have written the letter knowing what he later found out about Hein.

The lawsuit charged that Hein “actively groomed young boys under his charge for later sexual molestation.” Hein eventually was convicted of molesting Novak. He is now in prison for violating probation in the Novak case….http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/us/lds-church-boy-scouts/

….Working with rare footage, Gibney burrows into the enigma of Scientology’s founder, L Ron Hubbard, capturing glints of delusion and megalomania. Hubbard‘s rise began in the 1930s, and he quickly became an astoundingly prolific science-fiction writer. But then in 1950 he published Dianetics, the perpetual bestseller in which he helped invent the principles of the therapeutic ‘self-help’ books that grew hugely popular by the 1970s. In Scientology, he wrapped these ideas around a theological core of interplanetary gibberish that could have come straight out of one his pulp novels. Going Clear captures how Hubbard fused reality, fantasy and the pursuit of enlightenment in a way that, according to the film’s witnesses, expressed his own highly unstable and even violent nature – at one point Gibney shows how Hubbard even told his wife that one of their children had died, just to manipulate her. Hubbard wound up a sea-faring outlaw on the run from US tax officials, and in Going Clear he emerges as a broken dictator who founded a religion based on control because he was so desperate to control his own demons.

Hubbard constructed Scientology around a ritual known as the ‘audit’, which is like a conventional therapy session fused with a Catholic confession and a visit to Room 101 in Orwell’s 1984. A member sits down and digs into their secrets and private traumas, as the auditor asks questions and takes notes, recording the subject’s responses on an ‘E-meter’, a gadget invented by Hubbard. Haggis, a Scientologist for 35 years before his highly publicised break with the Church in 2009, tells us how incredibly good an audit session could make him feel, as if he’d purged himself of all his toxins. Gibney suggests Hubbard’s method of healing was really just a superficial take on Freudian therapy, a comparison that Hubbard scorned – though only after his techniques had been rejected as rubbish by legitimate psychiatrists. Going Clear, however, suggests a dramatic difference between auditing and traditional therapy: it claims that the Church of Scientology holds on to the notes from the sessions and uses them to blackmail its members into staying….

Gibney interviews a handful of high-level Scientology officers who left the Church and are now willing to denounce it. Marty Rathbun, who spent years as Miscavige’s right-hand man, was at the very centre of the citadel, and his testimony has an unsettling authority. He alleges that Miscavige, in actions worthy of the Khmer Rouge, subjected his loyal officials to rituals of abuse, making them ‘confess’ to imagined crimes and assaulting them if they didn’t comply. The astounding thing is that when the victims were given the chance to exit this torture program, none of them did. They thought they deserved to be punished….http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150320-a-scary-must-see-scientology-doc

Claims a police officer was threatened with the Official Secrets Act over allegations of child sex abuse relating to Cyril Smith are to be investigated.

The Manchester Evening News has reported claims an officer was warned to keep quiet after he found the former Rochdale MP at a house with two boys.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the unnamed former officer had not reported the claims to police.

But GMP said they would be examined as part of its alleged “cover-up” probe.

Twenty-three people have claimed they were abused by the Liberal MP, who died aged 82 in 2010….
Northamptonshire Police is also probing claims police released Smith after child pornography was found in the boot of his car on the M1 in the 1980s.http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-31965044

Cyril Smith M1 arrest to be probed by Northamptonshire Police
By Sally Chidzoy BBC East home affairs correspondent 9 March 2015
A cold case unit is to investigate claims police released MP Cyril Smith after images of child abuse were found in the boot of his car.

It is understood the Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was stopped on the M1 in Northamptonshire during the 1980s.

But he was released from police custody after making a telephone call to an unidentified third party in London, it has been claimed.

Northamptonshire Police is probing the circumstances around the arrest….

Johannesburg – The case against a church pastor, two grandparents and an uncle of a 9-year-old boy who allegedly molested the child in a satanic ritual has been transferred to a regional court.

The child’s paternal grandparents, an uncle and the 54-year-old pastor were arrested last month after an SAPS Occult Related Crimes Unit investigation.

Police suspect the group brought the then 7-year-old to the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg….http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/boy-s-satanic-rape-case-postponed-1.1834279
Lord Janner: Inquiry into ‘limited’ child abuse investigation 19 March 2015
Further inquiries are to be carried out into whether detectives were told to limit a child abuse investigation centred on the former MP Lord Janner.

A home belonging to the 86-year-old peer, who was a Labour MP in Leicester for 27 years, was searched in 2013.

Last year it was reported that in 1989 a detective sergeant was told not to arrest Mr Janner or search his home.

U.S. jails sex-trafficked kids in human rights abuse, groups say
By Stella Dawson Mon Mar 16, 2015
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The United States violates human rights by treating sex-trafficked children as criminals and throwing them into jail, rights groups told an international commission on Monday.

Federal and international law requires that children in the commercial sex trade are treated as victims of trafficking, not as prostitutes.

But most U.S. states and localities fail to apply the law, the groups said at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which reviews human rights abuses in the region….

“When girls are incarcerated for the experience of being propertied and serially raped, their ability to return to family, community and school is less likely, which only serves to tighten the traffickers’ control,” they said in prepared remarks.